‘Don’t ignore the Marikana lesson’

Inequality remains the biggest driver of labour unrest in South Africa, political commentator, author and radio personality Eusebius McKaiser said recently at the RFA conference. Urging the road freight sector to become more involved in the social conversation around workers’ income and equality he said it was this that was at the “heart of labour discontentment” in the country. “If one looks at Marikana it is very clear that it was not just another simple labour issue with workers protesting for a higher income, but rather a much broader set of factors at play,” he said. “The backdrop to the discontent was not just wage inequality but income inequality that ultimately became the key driver of the violence that we saw. That does not mean it was justified. It is illegal and immoral, but it is too easy a solution to just condemn what the disgruntled workers did.” He said the income inequality at play was the reason why strikes in the country saw much more violent behaviour than many countries poorer than South Africa. The road freight sector has for the past decade been plagued by particularly long and drawn-out strikes during wage negotiations, with the outbreak of violence a common occurrence. “The use of violence in South Africa is part of the grammar of being South African and is as much a part of our psyche as loving koeksisters and rugby. He said until South African employers – and the country at large for that matter – found ways of addressing the inequality that exists, strikes would continue to be violent and negotiations volatile as they are not just about rands and cents. CAPTION ‘Strikes not just about rands and cents.’